Latest content: Governance and law

In all countries, and at all levels of government, performance seems to lie in the eyes of the beholder. Different individuals looking at the same set of facts come to widely different conclusions. Divergent views and opinions about appropriate policies and their related programmes and projects are not only understandable, but a sine qua non of a healthy democratic system. However, divergent views about the performance of a government – implementation of policies, programmes and projects – are much harder to reconcile for lack of a fact-based consensus.

The private sector, on the other hand, does not face this problem. If a private sector company presents its financial statement and claims that it has made US$350 million profit, we accept it on its face value – not because we trust them blindly, but because those financial statements are prepared using the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). These statements, in turn, are audited by an external auditor to ensure that the statements were indeed prepared using those principles. If they do not stand up to an audit, then there are consequences, such as a loss of confidence by investors, often expressed as a sharp drop in the price of publicly traded shares.

The negative effects of climate change on nature and humankind are wide-ranging and multifaceted, and it is accepted that the most vulnerable communities, who have contributed the least to the causation of climate change, are likely to be disproportionately affected by these adverse effects. It is insufficient for only certain countries to take action to mitigate the causes of climate change; rather it is urgent that a global effort is mobilised.

The Paris Agreement, which all 56 Commonwealth member countries have ratified, commits signatories to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Signatories to the Paris Agreement are required to submit nationally determined contributions (NDC) every five years containing mitigation commitments for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To meet these commitments, it is necessary for Commonwealth member countries to put in place carefully considered legal frameworks and policies to reduce their emissions and limit the pace of climate change.

This book communicates a major research exercise spanning six Commonwealth member states on the African continent. Its findings will likely have resonance much farther afield within, and globally beyond, the Commonwealth. Its mixed-methods approach includes rich and insightful qualitative research and detailed and illuminating quantitative enquiry.

The objective to ‘combat all forms of organised crime’ has been recognised as one of the 169 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Target 16.4), demonstrating the unmistakable interrelationship between security and development. Organised crime, which we define using the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, involves a group of three or more persons that was not randomly formed, operating during a period of time in order to obtain directly or indirectly a financial or other material benefit. It is a persistent issue in the Caribbean (UNODC 2003).

A study by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime has demonstrated that organised crime could directly and significantly impact the ability to achieve 23 out of the 169 SDG targets, almost 15 per cent of them (Reitano et al. 2015). It is clear from this analysis that organised crime is a cross-cutting issue that will considerably impact SDG achievement.

By examining the position of mediation in a tradition of ‘adversarial’ court-adjudicated disputes, The Commonwealth Guide to Mediation chronicles the evolution of mediation as a case management tool. Furthermore, it explores the various models that have been adopted, identifying emerging areas of innovation and highlighting exemplars of good practice.